Until the pilot program began, the house had been used only sporadically, mostly for school and nursery groups, according to Nina Maurer, assistant curator of the museum.

For more than 100 years the house was on the east side of N. Main Street, opposite the Clear Spring Hotel, until it was moved to the Mercer site in 1911.

The house has a dough table, apple parer, a grind stone, a Dutch oven, iron kettles, a straw-mattressed bed and other articles from the early American period.

That period was selected, according to Maurer, because the house was "in use during that time and theitems are interesting in terms of our collection."

The objects, however, are not "museum quality," as Maurer puts it. They are intended for use by children.

Selection of the representative objects was based on inductive reasoning and intensive research using probate inventories and records of public sales of belongings of households in the time period.

The items were built practically with an eye on their anticipated future use by children.

The pilot program will include three separate half-day outings to the log house for children varying in age, background and sex.

Maurer said the museum hoped to mix and match a variety of children ranging from nursery school groups to Cub Scouts and check the response of each to participating in log-house living.

Children will be given the opportunity to weave on lap looms, participate in craft projects, cook using old-fashioned kitchenware and view demonstrations by "interpreters" familiar with the way of life in the mid 1800s.

Those are just a few of the experiences to be offered the children.

By next fall the program is expected to be available on a more regular basis.

Not only is the program educational for children, but Maurer also expects the varying responses from the different groups of children in the pilot program will allow instructors to glean important insight to improve the program by fall.

In addition to the children's program, Maurer said the log house would be open for special events like the upcoming Folk Fest in May.

She emphasized that the log cabin would not be included as a regular part of the tour for patrons of the museum and that the programs for groups of children would be by appointment.